An Analysis Of Foreign Body Aspirations In Turkey

Objective: We analyze the foreign body aspiration reports of our country to demonstrate a cumulative result and to form the aspect of issue. Material and Method: Turkish and English literature data were evaluated for the study. During evaluations, as there was a possibility of repeating data, we only took retrospective reports and we did not include studies like diagnostic correlations, case reports and prospective clinical investigations. Time periods and regions were defined in the report. Age, gender, foreign body types, negative explorations and complications were also evaluated. Complications were defined to illustrate the hazardous affect of foreign body aspirations on people. For the economic influence, preliminary financial evaluation was performed. Results: Fourteen articles match the criteria. From 1973 to 2007, 6633 patients were treated for foreign body aspirations and foreign bodies were found in 5014 patients. Male and females were 3343 and 2379 (M/F ratio was approximately 1.40) respectively. The median age for patients was 64.57 months. Total 46 thoracotomies were performed for failed bronchoscopies. Additionally, 9 tracheotomies, 4 pneumothorax and 7 cardiac arrests were reported. Most seen foreign bodies were seed and needle. Total costs of these procedures were 2.006.000, 00 TL preliminarily (approximately 1.330.000, 00 USD). Conclusion: All parameters correlate with international data. Nearly, forty thousand USD was consumed per year. Although correlation with international data was proved, we believe that number of reported patients were less than expected. Nevertheless, this is the first study complies our countries' data and we figured out the characteristics of foreign body aspiration. Key words: Foreign body aspiration; yabanci cisim aspirasyonu(Turkish); Turkey;